Ever-ready Sergio Romero (2024)

by

Editorial Team

The Reds’ first-leg meeting with LASK in Austriamay have taken place against unfamiliar opponentsin a then wholly unique setting – our first everbehind-closed-doors fixture – but the 33-year-oldstopper was a familiar face in goal for his seventhEuropa League appearance of the season, and his 21stin total for United in this competition.

Romero’s subsequent shut-out in the Linzer Stadiumwas his 39th clean sheet in his 58th game for the club,providing just the latest instalment in an astonishingconcessions record which outstrips every othergoalkeeper in the club’s history. While Nick Culkinand Paul Rachubka can boast unblemished recordsof keeping goal for the Reds without ever conceding,their combined playing time of 104 first-team minutesrender the duo statistical anomalies.

Despite playingwith varying regularity in the last five seasons, Romerohad kept clean sheets in almost exactly two-thirds of hisgames [before Wednesday's 2-1 second-leg win]. By comparison, for all the custodians in United’shistory, only Edwin van der Sar and Roy Carroll wereable to top clean sheets in just over half of their games.

Sergio explains how one-off matches like those in the Europa League are described in South America.

The Argentinian’s record is impressive, especiallycoming in a supporting role to David De Gea, the manregarded by many – including United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – as the world’s best stopper.“It’s not easy,” Romero admitted late last year.“ButI work every day for this chance to play, and thenI am ready when it comes. I work hard, andI am at the best club in the world. I said Iwanted to play for United one day when I wasyounger, and now I worked to get my chance.”

Back in February 2016, Romero marked his firstouting in the Europa League for United with aworld-class save to claw away Paul Onuachu’sheader for Midtjylland and, although theDanes sprung an upset that evening with a 2-1home win, Romero has gone unbeaten in hissubsequent 20 ties in this competition, enjoying16 wins and four draws. His 14 clean sheets inthose 21 games perfectly mirrors his overall recordfor the Reds and, for senior goalkeeping coachRichard Hartis, the numbers are a product ofRomero’s meticulous preparation.

“He’s obviously an experienced goalkeeper,”says Hartis. “He’s an international goalkeeperwho has played in a World Cup final. I’ve foundhim to be extremely hard working. Very robustemotionally. He turns up to work every dayand looks to better himself. Even now, at 33,he’s looking to make improvements to somefundamentals of his game, which is reallyrefreshing.

“Good players adapt, so as players geta little bit older and the body slows down a littlebit, the brain speeds up more. Sergio’s showingthat adaptability. His thirst for knowledge meansthat he wants to come and see his clips aftertraining, after the games, he’s still striving toimprove, to be the best he can be. What that doesis, for him, it gives him that level of consistencyaround his performance.

"He doesn't have big swings in readiness. He’s able to be ready, whichis a skill in itself.

“He’s a very professional guy,” continues Hartis. "He takes his work seriously. I think since I’ve beenback here he’s only missed one training session,so he’s on the grass, doing what’s asked of him,every single day. His mentality fits in with theother top keepers that I’ve had the opportunityto work with. Edwin van der Sar was like that.Sergio fits in with an elite-level goalkeeper.”

While the fundamental role of a goalkeeperremains the same – keep the round thing out ofthe net – Hartis concedes that the specificationsof the position have evolved in tandem with football’swider trends, putting greater demands on Romeroand his fellow custodians to be ingrained in thecollective’s approach to any given fixture.

“Now, teams attack with 11 and defend with11,” says the coach, who spent 10 years at theReds between 2000 and 2010 before rejoiningfor a second stint last summer. “The keepers aremore integrated into the build phase, how youbreak the press. They have to understand how theopposition are pressing, they have to understandwhere their optimal support positions are, andthe strengths of the players, as footballers, whothey’re playing with. The out-of-possession gamehasn’t changed that much other than maybethe balls are a little bit quicker and the playersare a little bit quicker.

“Also the referee now, withVAR, has an effect, and many of these things areevolving. Good goalkeepers have to affect thegame out of possession. They have to get a teamplaying when others can’t and save things thatothers can’t. That’s what goalkeepers here do. If you look at Sergio tactically, he’s very astute,so he processes lots of information very quicklywith the game to help his decision-making, inthe same way that David does.

“Experiencedgoalkeepers do that. They’ve got this big bankof knowledge that they can access and so whenhe’s asking questions about the opposition andhow they press, that process becomes quitestreamlined because he’s asking the reallygood questions that helps him get to what heneeds to know really quickly. When we have theconversations around being either in or out ofpossession, the tactical requirements, Sergio picksit up really quickly because of his experience.”

Safe hands Sergio Video

Sergio Romero made three great saves to help United win our final home game of 2019/20…

That mentality underpins and facilitates Romero’s ability to adapt to an ever-revolving set of circ*mstances around his every appearance. In his Reds career, he has already faced 42 different clubs – one more than Fabien Barthez opposed in 139 appearances. But unfamiliarity isn’t just restricted to opponents; in his 60 outings, Sergio has played behind 53 different starting defensive combinations, and hasn’t had the same defence in successive games since both legs of the 2017 Europa Leaguesemi-final against Celta Vigo.

For that, Hartisis keen to share credit around.“I think that’s testament to the adaptability ofthe players – not just Sergio, but the players thathe’s playing with,” he says. “I think it’s a testamentto how the teams are prepared. To put a groupof people on to the pitch who know their jobs isa sign of good leadership, good coaching, cleargame-plans, clear understanding of the playersand the players having a high ability to processthat information quickly and be able to act on it.You need that if you’re going to play here becausewe don’t get a lot of preparation time for games.”

For an added dash of roulette, Romero had never played more than four successive gamesin the same competition until the midweek outing against LASK; a variable which hasa considerable bearing for all players, butnone more than goalkeepers.“The balls that we play with vary fromcompetition to competition, so you have to havethat adaptability,” says Hartis. “It might soundlike a small thing, but the balls move in differentways, so being able to adjust from one ball tothe next is a skill. It depends what you’re doingwith them. Some of the balls move more quicklyin the air than others, some of them will movequite violently when they’re struck at pace atthe goal, and they vary with our schedule. Youmight only have a couple of days to prep withthat particular ball, so that ability to adapt isvery helpful for him to prep for those games.His adaptability and his mentality arereflected in the numbers that he puts upwhen he’s represented the football club.”

The goalposts may not be moving, but allaround them is. Except, of course, for SergioRomero; ever-ready and rock-steady.

This article first appeared in United Review, the official matchday programme.

We are all United! Get behind the Reds! On sale now, buy the new adidas training kit.

• Share With email